Microsoft CEO Nadella calls AI-powered search biggest thing for company since cloud 15 years ago

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said connected Tuesday that hunt powered by artificial quality is the biggest happening to hap to his institution successful the 9 years he's been astatine the helm.

"I person not seen thing similar this since I would accidental 2007-2008, erstwhile the unreality was conscionable archetypal coming out," Nadella told CNBC's Jon Fortt successful an interview.

Microsoft invited reporters to its office successful Redmond, Washington, for an lawsuit that centered astir caller AI-powered updates to the company's Bing hunt motor and Edge browser. Bing, which is simply a distant second to Google successful search, volition present let users to chat successful a mode that provides much elaborate answers to queries. 

The updates to Bing and Edge volition motorboat connected Tuesday connected desktop successful a constricted preview, meaning users volition get a finite fig of queries to hunt during the archetypal period.

Nadella said hunt is simply a precise profitable business, truthful these developments bespeak a large accidental for Microsoft.

"I've ne'er ever felt this liberated successful presumption of accidental successful the days ahead," helium told CNBC.

Microsoft's lawsuit Tuesday follows the company's January announcement regarding a multibillion-dollar investment successful ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. The woody marks the 3rd signifier of the concern betwixt the 2 companies, aft Microsoft's erstwhile investments successful 2019 and 2021.

ChatGPT automatically generates text based connected written prompts successful a manner that's overmuch much precocious and originative than past chatbots. The web-based instrumentality went viral aft its debut successful November. Tech executives and task capitalists gushed astir it connected Twitter, even comparing it to Apple's debut of the iPhone successful 2007. 

On Monday, Google announced an AI chatbot exertion called Bard that volition statesman rolling retired successful the coming weeks. Bard volition vie straight with ChatGPT.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attended Microsoft's Tuesday lawsuit and confirmed that Microsoft incorporated immoderate of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 connection technologies into Bing to amended its capabilities.

"I consciousness similar I've been waiting for this for 20 years truthful I'm precise blessed it's here," Altman said during the presentation.

Nadella was promoted to CEO successful 2014 aft moving the company's unreality business. He presided implicit Microsoft's costly and risky determination from on-premises servers to unreality infrastructure. It turned retired to beryllium a monolithic boon for a institution that mostly missed the modulation to mobile computing.

Microsoft Azure, the centerpiece of the company's unreality unit, is 2nd to Amazon Web Services and up of Google successful the unreality infrastructure market.

"You tin lone beryllium applicable successful exertion if you are bully capable to spot the waves of alteration and past to reorient your exertion and innovation docket and the concern exemplary agenda," Nadella said. "We've gone done immoderate precise harsh ones. The past 1 we went done was evidently the mobile and cloud. We caught one, we missed one."

—CNBC's Jordan Novet contributed to this report

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